After much wait Gundam Side Stories is released today in Japan. However, because we’re awesome we got a copy of the Limited Edition a day early (pictured above). So from playing about fifteen or so missions on the Slave Wraith side of Missing Link this is what we think of it thus far. In terms of controls and gameplay, it’s actually pretty great. It’s fluid and simple but with some nice weight to it. It feels like an amalgam of the old Blue Destiny games mixed with Lost War Chronicles and Zeonic Front. In terms of the latter, you have three units per team and you can switch mid-combat between them (like in Zeonic Front somewhat). These also act as your “lives”, as once one is taken out it has to recharge and you can switch to the others in the team. Once all units are down then that’s game over. Missions are short and simple but still quite varied. The game is quite focused as a whole, in that you don’t really have to customise the mobile suits or their load-out. You also have access to two weapons from the off, normally a machine gun and a bazooka/beam rifle but this varies from unit to unit. All this makes the controls and combat feel very direct and almost arcade like. The story and voice acting is also good and suitably interesting. All this aside though, this game looks really quite ugly in places. The majority of the cutsenes clearly weren’t done by an animator and the engine itself looks very dated indeed (worse than 0081 did in fact). The terrain especially looks like something from the PS2 era. We’re guessing this is because the budget was small and the content in the game as a whole is pretty massive (as they had to make seven games in one package). Once we’ve played it some more we’ll post our review but in the meantime it plays well but looks pretty disappointing. There are also some new gameplay videos, which we’ve linked below. You can buy the standard edition here.

For those of you who need a little mecha shoot ’em up action for your PC, Playism has just the thing for you. They have recently released the English translated version of Astebreed, a doujin PC SHMUP created by Edelweiss. You take control of the titular Astebreed mecha and shoot and slash your way through waves of of alien hordes, known as the Filune. What separates this game from other SHMUPs is the larger focus on melee which is not only used to slice up your enemies, but is also used to tactically defend yourself against certain types of attacks. Of course, this is also used in conjunction with your typical long range attacks to deal massive damage while building up your score multipliers. It’s a very pretty game visually and the gameplay really intense and satisfying when slicing away at enemy hordes and giant bosses. It took me about 2 hours to play through the first time, constantly dying while trying to figure out boss patterns and whatnot, but in the grand scheme of SHMUPs in general, it isn’t too hard. It also carries several achievements and unlockables such as character art and mechanical models. If you’re interested, the game is currently on sale at the Playism store for $15.99 and Steam keys will be available for the game when it is later released on Steam. Until then, check out the gameplay trailer below!

What with less than a week until release, we now finally have the full blown Cross Dimension 0079 promo for Gundam Side Stories. This was the first Gundam Gaiden game and was released back on the SNES, it was also a turn based strategy game. In addition to this, we also have new promos for both Rise from the Ashes and Space, To the End of A Flash. The promos are shown below. You can still pre-order the standard edition here.

Well that didn’t take long; Masoukishin F now has its first promo video (shown below). This will indeed be the final entry to the Masoukishin saga and the engine has had a fair bit of improvement. Now with a modified forced perspective, it makes the 2D models almost appear 3D. It looks quite impressive in fact. That aside, the game has been scheduled for a release on August 28th. There will be two versions available; a standard release at 7,120 yen and a limited edition at 10,930 yen. The latter will have a full soundtrack set for the series and a 100 page artbook included. The standard version will also be available to download from PSN on the day of release.

We now have two new videos for Gundam Side Stories, this time covering more gameplay from the Blue Destiny and Zeonic Front segments. The good news is that the Blue Destiny arc will get the full treatment, covering the spaced based segment of the story. The bad news is that unlike the previous videos, these ones look clunkier and heavier. Considering the game is out next week, we’ll keep our fingers crossed in the hope that it turns out good. You can pre-order the standard edition here.

Following the last two gameplay promos for Gundam Side Stories, we now have one that covers the game and story as whole. In addition to confirming the presence of a Cross Dimension 0079 arc, we now also see much more of how the Missing Link story fits into things. Specifically, how the MS-08TX/S Efreet Schneid ends up in Unicorn (as the Efreets were made in very limited quantity). Bar that, the story for Missing Link actually looks quite compelling and it seems that Side Stories as a whole has been given a lot of love. The game is still on course for its May 29th release and you can pre-order the standard edition here.

In addition to the new promos that went up yesterday, we now also have some further and very interesting gameplay footage for Gundam Side Stories. Now we said previously that the fact that the remakes of the older games were using the new engine hinged on whether the new setup was any decent. Well, it very is. The two videos cover both ground and space combat from both the Federation and Zeon sides. From what we are seeing in these videos from a functional standpoint, the game has the potential to be very good indeed. Whilst we would have preferred to have the original games remade as they were, we are happy at least that the new game mechanics look to be very compelling. The game is still on course for its May 29th release and you can pre-order the standard edition here.

We now have the promos for both Lost War Chronicles and Space, To the End of A Flash. Whilst the former was a standalone game, the latter was a side campaign in the PS2 game Encounters in Space. As such it is entirely set in space, compared to the other ground based games. Whilst this looks like the last of the promos, there are rumours that Cross Dimension 0079 will also be included. This is especially strange as that game was a turn based strategy title. Again, it seems that in the case of the Gundam Side Stories collection the games are purely meant as narrative retellings rather than actual remakes. The game is still on course for its May 29th release and you can pre-order the standard edition here.

Spoilers ahoy! Looks like the Full Armor Unicorn Gundam will be the next mobile suit to join the Gundam Extreme Versus Maxi Boost roster in May. Coming in as a 3000 cost suit, the FA Unicorn will battle in three stages that visibly purge when moving onto the next. Each stage will of course have different armaments ranging from anti warship armaments to a bendable mega beam launcher. Since this is coming in before the release of episode 7 of Gundam Unicorn, there are other attacks in the video that I won’t mention if you are concerned with spoilers. If not, definitely check out the link below!

In a slightly bizarre move, Bandai Namco in the US have decided to release Shin Gundam Musou as Dynasty Warriors Gundam Reborn this July. The bizarre part is that unlike the Japanese release last year, this will be a digital only release and then only for the PS3 (with the Vita version being ignored entirely). Compared to the previous Gundam Musou enties, the latest entry is somewhat of a disappointment and likely explains why the new US release is being slipped under the radar. In any case, the announcement trailer is shown below.